PM may attend Copenhagen Climate Summit

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is considering an invitation to attend the UN climate change conference at Copenhagen next month, environment minister Jairam Ramesh has said.

US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao have already expressed their intention to attend the 15th conference of signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change slated to kick off on December 9.

"Our prime minister has received the invitation to go to Copenhagen. The decision will be his. I am sure he is considering it. But I know he has been invited to attend the summit of the heads of the state on December 18," Ramesh said on the sidelines of CII-ITC Sustainability Awards function in New Delhi on Thursday.

India, along with other developing nations, have rejected mandated cuts in carbon emissions arguing that it would hamper their economic growth.

They also stressed that rich and developed nations should lead the way in cutting greenhouse gases.

Against the backdrop of China's decision to cut greenhouse gas emission ahead of the UN summit on climate change, India and China are teaming up along with other developing nations on Friday to have a coordinated approach at the Copenhagen conference.

"I have been invited by China to hold talks on climate change. This would presumably be an effort to have coordinated efforts at the forthcoming Copenhagen talks," the environment minister said.

The conference, to be attended by at least 65 world leaders, intends to produce a new global climate change treaty on limiting emissions of greenhouse gases that would replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol curbing greenhouse gas emission.